• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• 제1권1호
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• pp.70-76
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• 2001

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease characterized by a chronic inflammatory process, primarily involving the synovial membrane of peripheral j oints, where T cell activation is found. To address the superantigen stimulation in rheumatoid arthritis, T cell clonality and the expression of activation markers were analyzed. Methods: To detect TCRB V usage, inverse PCR and sequencing were done. Monoclonal antibodies were used for flow cytometric analysis of TCRBV8 or TCRBV5. As results, a restricted usage of TCRBV3 gene was detected in synovial lymphocytes from one rheumatoid arthritis patient. However, preferential usage for TCRB V8, which may be one indicator for stimulation by staphylococcal superantigen, was not obvious although general activation of T cells was found as high DR+ percentage in synovial T cells. These data show specific antigen rather than superantigen might involve the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• 제4권4호
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• pp.205-215
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• 2004

In the early host defense system, effector function of natural killer (NK) cells results in natural killing against target cells such as microbe-infected, malignant, and certain allogenic cells without prior stimulation. NK cell cytotoxicity is selectively regulated by homeostatic prevalence between a repertoire of both activating and inhibitory receptors, and the discrimination of untransformed cells is achieved by recognition of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I alleles through inhibitory signals. Although it is well known that the bipotential T/NK progenitors are derived from the common precusor, functional mechanisms in terms of the development of NK cells remain to be further investigated. NK cells are mainly involved in innate immunity, but recent studies have been reported that they also play a critical role in adaptive immune responses through interaction with dendritic cells (DC). This interaction will provide effector functions and development of NK cells, and elucidation of its precise mechanism may lead to therapeutic strategies for effective treatment of several immune diseases.

• 한국약용작물학회지
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• 제12권2호
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• pp.154-162
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• 2004

Hairy roots were induced from Korean ginseng (Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer) root explants and studied for their gene expression. A total of 3,000 ESTs (expressed sequence tags) from ginseng hairy root were determined and about 2,700 ESTs have a length of readable sequence, which result in 1,352 unique ESTs sequences. The 879 ESTs showed significant similarities to known nucleotide or amino acid sequences in other plant species, which were divided into eleven categories depending upon gene function. The remaining 473 sequences showed no significant matches, which are likely to be transcripts or to be matched to other organisms. The results indicated that the analysis of the ginseng hairy root ESTs by partial sequencing of random cDNA clones may be an efficient approach to isolate genes that are functional in ginseng root in a large scale. Our extensive EST analysis of genes expressed in ginseng hairy root not only contributes to the understanding of the dynamics of genome expression patterns in root organ but also adds data to the repertoire of all genomic genes.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국생물공학회 2003년도 생물공학의 동향(XII)
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• pp.715-718
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• 2003

Clusters of orthologous groups of proteins (COG) 알고리즘을 이용하여 42 종의 원핵생물, 33종의 진정세균, 16종의 단백세균 수준에서의 보존적 유전자 (conserved gene)를 파악하였다. 분석대상 원핵생물 모두 75종의 COG 즉 보존적 유전자가 관찰되었다. COG0195, COG0358 그리고 COG0528은 원핵생물에서만 관찰되었고 64종류의 보존적 유전자가 33종의 Bacteria에서 관찰되었다. 각 분류단계를 특징짓는 새로운 COG의 추가를 확인하였고 각 단백세균 그룹은 독자적인 COG 레퍼토리를 소유하였으며 물질대사에 관련된 보존적 유전자는 beta 그룹이 다른 그룹에 비해 다양한 것을 확인하였다. 본 연구는 Proteobacteria의 기원과 진화적 유연관계를 파악하는데 도움을 줄 뿐만 아니라 향후 세균분류학과 생명공학에 필수적인 유용유전자 탐색 등에서도 충분한 연구가치가 있는 것으로 사료되었다.

• 동의생리병리학회지
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• 제19권1호
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• pp.204-211
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• 2005

We hypothesize that bear's gall may have a certain role in anti-inflammation through a preventive effect of pro-inflammatory potentials. Secondly, we tried to connect the experimental results to Alzheimer's disease (AD), which chronic inflammation is a main cause of the disease. For this theme, we designed to elucidate the efficacy of bear's gall in suppressing the pro-inflammatory mediators, such as nitric oxide (NO) and $interleukin-1{\beta}\;(IL-1{\beta})$ in rat microglia. From the study, we concluded that bear's gall plays a positive role in suppressing such pro-inflammatory repertoire from rat microglia comparing to normal and positive control, such as culture media and cyclosporine. Interestingly, bear's gall showed a prolonged effect of anti-inflammation comparing with cyclosporine when time goes by up to 48h with a significant suppression at $1.2\;mg/m{\ell}$. Therefore, we can consider that bear's gall in part can be applied to AD therapy in that it suppresses the expression of pro-inflammatory mediators as well as its continued effect.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• 제50권12호
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• pp.1165-1172
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• 2007

Self/non-self discrimination and unresponsiveness to self is the fundamental properties of the immune system. Self-tolerance is a state in which the individual is incapable of developing an immune response to an individual's own antigens and it underlies the ability to remain tolerant of individual's own tissue components. Several mechanisms have been postulated to explain the tolerant state. They can be broadly classified into two groups: central tolerance and peripheral tolerance. Several mechanisms exist, some of which are shared between T cells and B cells. In central tolerance, the recognition of self-antigen by lymphocytes in bone marrow or thymus during development is required, resulting in receptor editing (revision), clonal deletion, anergy or generation of regulatory T cells. Not all self-reactive B or T cells are centrally purged from the repertoire. Additional mechanisms of peripheral tolerance are required, such as anergy, suppression, deletion or clonal ignorance. Tolerance is antigen specific. Generating and maintaining the self-tolerance for T cells and B cells are complex. Failure of self-tolerance results in immune responses against self-antigens. Such reactions are called autoimmunity and may give rise to autoimmune diseases. Development of autoimmune disease is affected by properties of the genes of the individual and the environment, both infectious and non-infectious. The host's genes affect its susceptibility to autoimmunity and the environmental factors promote the activation of self-reactive lymphocytes, developing the autoimmunity. The changes in participating antigens (epitope spreading), cells, cytokines or other inflammatory mediators contribute to the progress from initial activation to a chronic state of autoimmune diseases.

• 한국경영과학회지
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• 제39권3호
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• pp.7-22
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• 2014

By the publications of RDF and OWL, the Semantic Web is confirmed as a technology through which information in the Internet can be processed by machines. The focus of the Semantic Web study after then has moved to how to provide more useful information to users for their decision making beyond simple use of the structured data in ontologies. SWRL that makes logical inference possible by rules, and SWCL that formulates constraints under the Semantic Web environment are some of many efforts toward the achievement of that goal. Constraint represents a connection or a relationship between individual data in ontology. Based on SWCL, this paper tries to extend the language by adding one more type of constraint, implication constaint, in its repertoire. When users use binary variables to represent logical relationships in mathematical models, it requires and knowledge on the solver to solve the models. The use of implication constraint ease this difficulty. Its need, definition and relevant technical description is presented by the use of the optimal common attribute selection problem in product design.

• 한국미생물·생명공학회지
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• 제36권2호
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• pp.149-157
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• 2008

Many proteins consist of distinctive domains that can act independently or cooperatively to achieve a unique function. As these domains evolve from a naturally existing repertoire of functional domains, this implies that domain organization is an intrinsic element involved in building the complex structure and function of proteins. Thus, identifying functional domains would appear to be critical to the elucidation of questions related to protein evolution, folding, and the engineering of hybrid proteins for tai- lored applications. However, the simple application of "Lego-like assembly" to the engineering of hybrid proteins is an oversimplification, as many hybrid constructs lack structural stability, usually due to unfavorable domain contacts. Thus, directed evolution, along with computational studies, may help to engineer hybrid proteins with improved physico-chemical properties. Accordingly, this paper introduces several approaches to functional hybrid protein engineering that potentially can be used to create modulators of gene transcription and cell signaling, and novel biosensors to analyze biological functions in vivo.

• 영어어문교육
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• 제16권4호
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• pp.91-106
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• 2010

This study examines the use of hedges in cross-cultural communication between EFL learners in an e-learning environment. The study analyzes the use of hedges in a corpus of an interactive web with a bulletin board system through which college students of English at Japanese and Korean universities interacted with each other discussing the topics of local and global issues. It compares the use of hedges in the students' corpus to that of a native English speakers' corpus. The result shows that EFL learners tend to use relatively smaller number of hedges than the native speakers in terms of the frequencies of the total tokens. It further reveals that the learners' overuse of a single versatile high-frequency hedging item, I think, results in relative underuse of other hedging devices. This indicates that due to their small repertoire of hedges, EFL learners' overuse of a limited number of hedging items may cause their speech or writing to become less competent. Based on the result and interviews with the learners, the study also argues that hedging should be understood in its social contexts and should not be understood just as a lack of conviction or a mark of low proficiency. Suggestions were made for using computer corpora in understanding EFL learners' language difficulties and helping them develop communicative and pragmatic competence.

• Animal cells and systems
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• 제16권5호
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• pp.351-356
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• 2012

Food is important to any animal, and a large part of the behavioral repertoire is concerned with ensuring adequate nutrition. Two main nutritional sensations, hunger and satiety, produce opposite behaviors. Hungry animals seek food, increase exploratory behavior and continue feeding once they encounter food. Satiated animals decrease exploratory behavior, take rest, and stop feeding. The signals of hunger or satiety and their effects on physiology and behavior will depend not only on the animal's current nutritional status, but also on its experience and the environment in which the animal evolved. In our novel, nutritionally rich environment, improper control of appetite contributes to diseases from anorexia to the current epidemic of obesity. Despite extraordinary recent advances, genetic contribution to appetite control is still poorly understood partly due to lack of simple genetic model systems. In this review, we will discuss current understanding of molecular and cellular mechanisms by which animals regulate food intake depending on their nutritional status. Then, focusing on relatively less known muscarinic and cGMP signals, we will discuss how the molecular and behavioral aspects of hunger and satiety are conserved in a simple invertebrate model system, Caenorhabditis elegans so as for us to use it to understand the genetics of appetite control.